'A Load of Rubbish'! Weekly Reflection 16th March 2025

 What a load of rubbish! 

St Oswald’s Litter Pickers have been out three times this year and collected thirty-four bags of rubbish of the streets, in the parks and from around the hedgerows. Added to which are numerous other items, including a large fire extinguisher, three supermarket shopping baskets, a suitcase and a TV.

Personally, I set myself a New Year Resolution to pick up at least one item of rubbish per day, and so far I have managed to do this on most days, even sometimes while out running.  There is no shortage of grot to pick up!

I have also been pushing for ‘Less Litter in Lent’ and challenging people during Lent to pick up at least one piece of rubbish every day and pop it into a bin.  If over the course of the forty days of Lent, ten people took up this challenge, that would four-hundred pieces of litter picked up.

There are no other words, people who drop litter or fly tip of dump sofas and other rubbish in back lanes or fields are dirty, disgusting and disrespectful and guilty of a criminal offence!

Now, considering what is happening across the world, the violence, mistrust, the starvation, the climate change and so much more, litter on our streets may not appear to be that important.

However, I would argue that this is symptomatic of attitudes that can grow and develop into a careless type of attitude. It is somebody else’s problem, I need to get rid of this rubbish and can’t be bothered to make the time and effort or even the cost involved in disposing of it in the correct way.  Or maybe to consider recycling, repairing and reusing.

It may seem to a bit of leap but let me remind you of some words from Matthew 5. 21-22, part of what we have come to know as the ‘Sermon on the Mount.’

 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ (an Arabic term of contempt) is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”

Put simply, if you murder someone you will be liable to the local court, if you use a term of contempt against them you will be brought before the high court, but, if you call them a fool you will be in danger of a committing a capital offence.

Now, doesn’t that at first appear wrongheaded?  However, think of it this way using an old expression that ‘the thought is father to the deed.’

We need to go to the source, the well spring. That is the principal Jesus is driving at here, and elsewhere in this block of teaching, it is our thought processes that we need to address.  

 (Let’s not get to tied up with whether we consider the heart, the head or the stomach as the source of our motivation and action)

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. Matthew 15.19

If we are carless and casual about dumping and dropping rubbish because we don’t care about the mess or the pollution or even the cost of cleaning up the mess, then what does that say about our ‘heart position’? What does it say about our thinking about the environment and towards those who have to walk through or live alongside the rubbish we have so casually discarded?

I was asking somebody who has recently started a new post as a teacher at a High School in Coventry how it was all going. He said it was fine, but he was slightly taken aback by the lack of respect from the students. Ordinarily he said, you might at least to have a bit of a honeymoon period, but there was none of it.

At the end of the month our lovely twin grandchildren will be seven.  It is that age when we are doing all that we can to ensure they show respect and mind their manners, saying please and thank you.

However, we are finding that it is a struggle. We appear to have lost a common sense of respect and decency, especially amongst our leaders, all hyped up through social media.

What we need is a heart transplant. ‘And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.’  Ezekiel 36.26.

Can we, who have undergone this ‘heart surgery’ be those who take a lead here? Can we be those who endeavour to be kind, to show respect, and yes, certainly not drop litter or throw rubbish away but seek to reuse, recycle and repair.   

One piece of litter a day or taking part in regular litter picks may not seem that much, but lots of littles can add up to a lot. 

And a little bit of love and all the little acts of kindness we do, added together, will make an ocean of difference!

https://youtu.be/peyk6VZhkfw?si=I0yIm9n7VqCVRJRg

A Little Bit of Love

(By the way, look out for details of a town wide litter pick involving several church and groups in Rugby on the 12^th July)  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Beyond Fasting' - Weekly Reflection 9th March 2025

Matthew 6:16 When you fast, do not be sombre like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.

Fasting for Christians is not a command such as it was and remains for ethnic Israelites. However, here, Jesus’ tone suggests that fasting is a given, that it is something that we will do.

And we see this played out in the early Church. For example, in Acts 13.2 we read, ‘While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

And up until recently the ‘discipline’ of fasting was commonplace.

Today at St Oswald’s we continued with our engagement with ‘Practising the Way’ by John Mark Commer. (The Course — Practicing the Way)

We have been exploring the spiritual disciplines and practices of Jesus, today we explored fasting.  Jesus both feasted and fasted.  Therefore, if we are to follow him as his ‘apprentices’ then fasting ought to be part of our own discipline.

How you fast, why you fast and when you fast are important and guidance is readily available, even if the practise has fallen into abeyance.  Of course, the practise of a Lenten fast is still widely recognised, even outside the Church.

Therefore, we recognise that fasting is a good thing to do, that Jesus ‘expects’ us to fast, it is a given, it was part of the early Church’s practise and continued to be a key role in the life of the Church until recently when it has fallen into abeyance, apart from perhaps a Lenten fast of abstinence, like giving up something for Lent.

However, in Isaiah 58. 5-7 we read these words, ‘Is this the fast I have chosen: a day for a man to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the LORD? Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke? Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?…

And we may cross reference that with a passage from Matthew, 25:35-36
‘For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, / I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’

Therefore, I want to encourage fasting as a good thing to do to help us draw near to God, to deepen our spiritual life and our relationship with God. All to be encouraged and all very important.

However, it mustn’t be left there, as reflected in the quote from Isaiah 58 above, it must lead us on and out.  Check out this selection of Scriptures covering the same theme...

Luke 4:18-19, James 1:27; Galatians 5:13-14;  Matthew 23:23; Micah 6:8;
Zechariah 7:9-10; Proverbs 21:3; Jeremiah 34:8-17; Matthew 5:6; 1 John 3:17-18;  Acts 10:38;  Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:16; Deuteronomy 15:7-11.

I remember during the time of the movement of the Holy Spirit that became known as the ‘Toronto Blessings’ that spread from Canada into the UK.  One of these features, common to Charismatics, but slightly unnerving for those unused to such practises was ‘resting in the Spirit’ (or, ‘being slain in the Spirit.’) This was where a person being prayed for, or sometimes even not being prayed for, fell onto the floor. There was much debate and comment about this and the other more peculiar manifestations. However, on this manifestation, ‘resting in the Spirit,’ I remember a comment by Colin Urquhart, well known for rediscovering and encouraging the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church, he said, “it isn’t so much about the going down, but as to the getting up.”     

Maybe, just maybe, over this Lent (and onwards) when we fast we use that time not only to engage deeper with God in prayer, contemplation, reading Scripture, but we do something very practical. 

We might volunteer with a Charity, helping in a shop or raising funds. Maybe if you are abstaining from something then donate the money you might have spent to that Charity.  

Having fasted, prayed, read our Scripture, spent in contemplation the question remains; ‘what am I going to do as a result of this encounter with God?’

O Christ in the synagogue at Nazareth,

O Christ in the pulpit of our Churches,

O Risen and Cosmic Christ,

O Voice of the Compassionate

And Righteous God,

Give us no peace until

We become workers for your Gospel.

https://youtu.be/S-Bq1YtpQL8?si=xwbHgUCD25Jtwr-o

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

'Engaging or Escaping' - Weekly Reflection 2nd March 2025

'There must be very few people across the globe who have not heard about the Oval Office debacle last week.

I don’t really want to add anything to the pronouncements of pundits and the politicians about what an utter disgrace it was and the like of which has never, ever been seen before. For one President to talk to another President in such a public way was jaw dropping and almost unbelievable. Although not quite so from a President like Donald Trump. That’s his style and way of getting a deal done!

What I have been trying to process is how we should react as Christians.

I know many of my Christian friends have been posting on social media and sharing items.

But when does sharing ‘information’ and ‘truth’ slip over that line and become vitriolic and even abusive and certainly unhelpful and unhealthy.

And social media apart, I imagine we will be having those conversations with family, friends, work colleagues.

How on earth do we navigate through all the heat, the steam, the muck, mud and mire and hold a Christian perspective.  Added to which as Christians we will be reading things differently. There are those who will be fully supportive of President’s Trump’s stand.  Fully in agreement that it is well time we stopped pandering to ‘wokeism.’  Absolutely behind the idea that ‘charity begins at home’ – we first love and care for our own before we reach out in love and care for others.

I have no answers only more and more questions as the world appears to be getting darker and crazier by the day. 

And for what it is worth, just putting it out there, that I am not convinced about ‘End Times’ and that this is a prelude to Jesus’ return and the ‘Faithful’ being taken into heaven.  Two points on that. The whole corpus of Scripture speaks of a heaven and earth conjunction, of God’s sphere, heaven being conjoined with our sphere, earth.   Thus, no ‘going to heaven and escaping from earth.’  The Christian faith is about engagement not escape!  Secondly, look over your history at some of the times when the world was convulsed and caught up in the most awful events. We are certainly at an epoch-making moment when western liberal democracy appears to be running out of track having pushed its agenda so far as to beggar belief and common sense.  I am talking about things like parents complaining to school because they would not allow their child to identify as an animal. At such times like this, strong autocratic leadership is often welcomed to help offer a guide and steer. We are seeing this happening across the world right now.  

Let me return to the tsunami of comments following the Oval Office debacle.

At St Oswald’s we have been engaging with Practising the Way. (Practicing the Way) Our own home group have been exploring ‘Solitude.’  One of the practises we have been encouraged to do is to spend at least five minutes as soon as we have woken up and focus on God rather than reach for our phone or turn on the radio or the TV.  Putting God first before we open ourselves to the world and its various machinations, most often very negative.

On Saturday last, (1^st March) we had a Men’s Breakfast gathering up in town.  It is my normal practise to listen to Lectio 360 in the morning.  (Lectio 365 - 24-7 Prayer International) But on that morning I let myself get caught up in the social media outpouring. I could have made an excuse that I knew we would be talking about this and needed to be informed. But, truth be told, I let this issue slide into my thoughts and mind before prayer, listening to Scripture and spending at least 10 minutes with God. 

Now, in the grand scheme of things this is such a small matter. But what if I was to allow this tiny slip to settle and to grow.  It has been said that very few people simply stop engaging with God or attending Worship and going to Church. It is a slow slippage, a missed Sunday here and there, a forgetfulness in reading Scripture and offering prayers.   

Like me, you are also probably trying to process all that is currently happening in the world. But even as we seek to be as well informed as we can be let us never neglect to spend time with Father God, to bring the best we have, and yes, that would include the first moments of the day when we wake up and I would also add the last moments of the day as well.

“Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening,” is a quote attributed to " Mahatma Gandhi.

That looks like good advice to me, but 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 offers something even more challenging, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

With that in mind let us step into the week ahead seeking to give God the best, and the first and the last of our love and attention each day. Let us weigh up carefully our engagement with social media. Think twice about reposting and sharing. And yes, absolutely yes, let us be as informed as we can be so that we can have meaningful and thought-out conversations.  ‘Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.’ Colossians 4.6

And you may want to use this as your ‘Watchword for the Week’ no matter what crazy stuff bubbles up around us and across the world.

^‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7